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LA 286 

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Copy 1 ? OF THE MEANS OF 

iXNOKriAsiNG the Efficiency 
in Public Schools 



Annual Address 

Delivered by 

JOHN F. RIGGS 

M 

Superintendent of Public Instruction 

Before the 

Iowa State Teachers 
Association 

November 4, 1910 



DES MOINES 

EMORY H. ENGLISH, STATE PRINTER 

1910 



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*5Some of the Means of Increasing the Effi- 
ciency in Public Schools. 

t4 

"i Annual Address of John F. Riggs, State 
ik Superintendent. 

(5* 

The problem of waste in education must 
ever engage the most earnest attention of 
all persons in any way interested in school 
affairs. It is a problem ever old but always 
new and one that is particularly urgent in 
Iowa at the present hour. It is fitting, 
therefore, that we consider for a few min- 
utes some of the means of reducing waste 
and of increasing efficiency in our schools. 

The most effective and economical school 
work requires that three fundamental con- 
ditions be met. 

First. There must be physical equip- 
ment fully adequate to meet the needs of 
all the children in all the activities of the 
school. 

Second. There must be children in suf- 
ficient numbers to make possible suitable 
classification, and they must he regular in 
their attendance. 

Third. There must be teachers of cul- 
ture and Tharacter and professional spirit 
and whose love of the work and of the 
children is constant and consuming. 

With more than twenty-seven million 
dollars invested in school buildings and 
grounds it would seem that Iowa has gone 
far toward meeting the physical demands 
of the schools; and in the more populous 
school corporations of the state this is in 
large measure true. But while there have 
arisen in many of our towns and cities 
school buildings of architectural beauty, 
with commodious, well seated, well venti- 
lated and well lighted rooms and with 
equipment for the most effective study of 

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all subjects pursued, in many other towns 
and cities the generosity of the taxpayers 
has stopped short of providing sufficient 
funds for the proper completion and ade- 
quate equipment of the school buildings 
erected, on the theory doubtless that a 
room, a seat and a book are the only real 
needs of the child at school. Then we have 
our twelve thousand and more one room 
rural school houses dotting the state from 
border to border, some of them, thanks to 
the liberality of enlightened progressive 
communities, are buildings of architectural 
beauty, which provide superior comforts 
and conveniences for the children. Others 
are severely crude, a survival from a past 
generation, while still others are a by-word 
and a reproach to any self-respecting com- 
munity. 

So while we have twenty-seven million 
dollars invested in school buildings and 
grounds, we have done well only in spots 
and doubtless the intelligent expenditure 
of another twenty-seven million dollars 
will be required before all our children 
have the benefits of a suitable physical 
school environment. 

Comparatively few communities have 
awakened to the real demands of the 20th 
century school. Buildings, commodious, 
evenly heated, properly lighted, perfectly 
ventilated, artistically finished and equip- 
ped for the teaching of manual training 
and domestic arts, as well as for the tra- 
ditional school subjects, and set amidst 
trees and flowers and with ample premises 
for play-grounds and school gardens — this 
is the ideal for the physical side of the 
20th century school. Manifestly such a 
school can be developed only in districts 
where there are many children to be or- 
ganized into classes and where there is 
much property subject to taxation. It is 
most unfortunate that in practically all the 
country districts and in many of the vil- 

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lage districts one or both of the conditions 
just mentioned are wanting. 

More than 2,000 rural schools in Iowa 
never enroll more than ten pupils to the 
school in a given term and many of them 
enroll less than five. While of all the 
rural schools in the state, less than three 
thousand, or about 25 per cent of the 
whole, enroll more than 20 pupils to the 
school in any given term. While this con- 
dition shall prevail, unrest and dissatisfac- 
tion will continue and large expenditures 
on school houses and grounds and other 
equipment will be grudgingly made, and 
there will continue to be small opportunity 
for organizing the pupils for effective work 
in all the activities possible in a well class- 
ified and well graded school. No well in- 
formed and disinterested student of the 
rural school situation in Iowa can escape 
the conclusion that some method of en- 
larging the supporting area of most of our 
rural schools is one of the first essentials 
for rural school improvement. We will 
have made substantial progress when the 
taxing unit shall not be less than the 
township and it would be even better were 
it the county, when the local school board 
shall be chosen at large by all the voters 
of the township, and when the folly of 
sub-dividing the township into little dis- 
tricts shall be finally abandoned. 

The public sentiment of the state will, 
I am confident, support a measure calcu- 
lated to effect the changes I have just in- 
dicated. An expression on this subject 
was taken last winter in a few farmers' 
institutes and school officers' meetings 
with the result that out of 1,704 men and 
women voting, 1,412 expressed themselves 
as favoring the changes proposed. It is 
significant that in no single meeting was 
there an adverse majority. This expres- 
sion made by a few intelligent farmers in 
different parts of the state would seem to 

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indicate that the time is ripe for an im- 
portant forward movement. I do not claim 
that the changes proposed would prove a 
final solution of the rural school problem. 
I am well aware that one room rural 
schools would still continue, but many of 
the weaker of them would be speedily 
eliminated, and those remaining would on 
the whole be better supported and more 
efficiently managed. Making the township 
the unit with a small board chosen at large 
is the one practical step that can be imme- 
diately taken and even though not bringing 
the full measure of relief desired, it will 
at least result in improvement. But while 
working for the lesser benefits, which by 
concerted action the educators of the state 
can bring to pass in the immediate future, 
we should not lose sight of the larger pos- 
sibilties of the rural school which can 
come only through consolidation. 

The practicability of gathering a hun- 
dred or more country children Into a single 
school has heen conclusively demonstrated 
in many states of the Union. The consoli- 
dated schools in Iowa, as in other states, 
are uniformly successful where liberally 
supported and wisely managed. School 
consolidation, let it be remembered, can 
come only when the people demand it. 
It is no longer with us a question of leg- 
islation, but one of favorable public senti- 
ment in local communities. The agitation 
must go on. Wherever there is a com- 
munity center there should be the consoli- 
dated school with library and assembly 
hall, with complete equipment for the most 
practical and thorough school work, and 
with spacious and beautifully kept grounds 
and school gardens where, to quote the 
language of another, "the child should be 
taught to apply in the soil the informa- 
tion which he acquires from his books and 
teachers." Such a school will require 
large revenues for its support just as the 

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perfectly equipped city school requires 
large revenues for its support. A well 
rounded education that properly equips the 
young American for his highest service to 
society, that gives him not only the rudi- 
ments of an education but a complete high 
school training as well, requires large ex- 
penditure of money, but it is money wisely 
expended. The cheap school is the effi- 
cient school. It may double the tax levy, 
but if it produces men and women morally 
upright, with clear judgment, with sound 
bodies and with well informed and well 
disciplined minds, the investment yields 
large dividends to society and the school 
is a cheap school. 

We often hear the statement, half in 
complaint, that the school tax is greater 
than any tax we pay. But it ought to be 
greater, and it must be increasingly greatejr 
if the schools are to render fully the high 
service demanded of them. No teacher, 
no superintendent, no member of a board 
of education ought to apologize for the 
size of the school tax so long as the money 
is wisely applied. A narrow policy that 
seeks to spend the fewest dollars possible 
regardless of results has no place in public 
school administration. No where in the 
public service is there greater need of far- 
sighted, broad-minded men than on our 
boards of education, and with no class of 
public servants is there greater need of 
fearless courage than with superintendents, 
principals and teachers, who ought always 
to be ready to set forth with convincing 
argument the assential conditions for 
school work of the highest value, and one 
of these conditions for the present day 
school is, as I have tried to show, a com- 
plete physical equipment that can be pro- 
vided only at great cost. 

But of far greater importance is the 
personality that presides over the school. 
If the teacher is without knowledge or 

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tact or ability to use the means placed at 
her hand, there will be failure and loss 
of opportunity, even though the school en- 
vironment is ideal. That we have many 
such teachers in Iowa there can be no 
doubt. I come then to a consideration of 
the means to be employed to increase the 
number of competent teachers. I am glad 
to believe that the past five years have wit- 
nessed a decided advance in this very di- 
rection. A fairly uniform basis of exam- 
inations in which all favoritism is removed 
has had a wholesome effect, not only upon 
the teachers in active service but ~ as well 
upon the students, who are looking for- 
ward to teaching. More teachers and 
more prospective teachers have been in 
school with a purpose than ever before; 
and vastly more attention has been given 
to professional study by teachers and by 
college students than during any other 
like period within the history of the state. 
But the standard for the poorer grades 
of certificates is too low, and a large num- 
ber of licenses are issued every year to 
persons whose scholarship and professional 
training is so deficient as to unfit them for 
the successful service they undertake as 
teachers to perform. 

It is, to be sure, within the power of 
the State Board to raise the standard and 
thus reduce the number of very poor cer- 
tificates issued, but this at the present 
time is wholly impractical since it would 
result in such a shortage of teachers as to 
close hundreds of schools, and this in turn 
would lead to the overthrow of our whole- 
some certificate laws which have been se- 
cured and held with the greatest effort. 
While the minimum standard for certifi- 
cates should be kept sufficiently high to 
prevent an over supply of teachers, pru- 
dence dictates that it should be kept suffi- 
ciently low to supply practically all the 
schools with teachers. 

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While the means now employed will re- 
sult in gradual improvement and while, 
as I view it, no change in the examinations 
or in the method of conducting them will 
hasten that improvement, I am of the 
opinion that the extent and quality of the 
preparation of those presenting themselves 
for certificates can, by wise legislation, be 
brought within a few years to a much 
higher standard than at present prevails. 
Any one of good moral character who has 
reached the age of eighteen years is now 
eligible to the examination for a uniform 
county certificate. An eighth grade pupil 
in the country or city schools has can- 
vassed all the subjects required in the ex- 
amination for a second or, third grade cer- 
tificate, and many applicants, with no 
wider outlook, succeed in passing the ex- 
aminations and are granted certificates. 

The law should require that after a 
stated time (possibly five years), no one 
should be permitted to enter the examina- 
tion who had not completed in a satisfac- 
tory manner, a four years' secondary 
course or its equivalent. I do not claim 
that such training is an adequate prepara- 
tion for teaching, but it can in time be 
made a conditon for entrance to the teach- 
ers' examinations, thus insuring for all 
candidates a certain maturity and schol- 
arship and breadth of outlook that appli- 
cants at the present are not required to 
possess. I hope the day will come and I 
believe it will come when teachers very 
generally will have a more extended prep- 
aration than can be secured in the best of 
our present day high schools. While our 
present facilities for this advanced teacher 
training are insufficient, it is gratifying to 
know that the colleges of the state are pre- 
paring an increasingly large number of 
teachers, due in no small measure to the 
law that grants state certificates without 
examination to such of the graduates as 

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have, during their college course, com- 
pleted work of a prescribed quality and 
amount in the department of education. 

The number of state certificates issued 
in Iowa for the biennial period ending 
June 30, 1910, was 2,356, a gain of 1,367 
over the corresponding biennial period of 
ten years ago. For the past two years 
52 per cent of all the state certificates 
written were issued to the graduates of 
Iowa colleges and normal schools. We 
are getting many more college graduates 
to engage in teaching than formerly and 
all of them have had definite professional 
training of good quality. On the whole, 
they are well prepared, both in scholar- 
ship and in professional outlook. 

I have said that within the past two 
years we have isued 2,356 state certifi- 
cates. But, within that period, few teach- 
ers bearing state certificates have sought 
or accepted work in the rural schools, or 
in the intermediate grades of our town and 
village schools. It is well known that po- 
fessionally trained teachers in these posi- 
tions are the exception and also that com- 
paratively few of them have had a very 
extended scholastic training. Here we 
need trained teachers just as surely as 
any where else and the foremost educa- 
tional question of the hour is how this 
great and urgent need may be supplied. 
Many will answer that it should be sup- 
plied through the creation of additional 
normal schools. But we must have many 
such schools, widely distributed, if all 
parts of the state are to be equally and 
adequately served. If more normal schools 
can be speedily secured, well and good. 
If they cannot be secured or if we must 
abide another ten years before they are 
secured, let the state utilize some of the 
schools already established by providing 
in them for definite teacher training, and 
thus bring this training speedily within 



easy reach of the great body of students 
from which the teacher supply must come. 

There is perhaps not a county in the 
state that does not have within its borders 
at least one strong high school. With prop- 
er encouragement many of the cities where 
such shools are located would be more 
than willing to make provision for a one 
year normal course beyond the completion 
of the regular four year high school 
course. 

Let the General Assembly authorize the 
State Educational Board of Examiners to 
commission a limited number of high 
schools as teachers training schools. Let 
the Board prescribe the standard as to 
faculty, equipment and other facilities for 
efficient teacher training. Let the course 
of study be formulated by the state board 
and let it include a thorough review of 
the common branches as well as a study 
of elementary phychology, school manage- 
ment, agriculture and home economics. Let 
the course cover one year's work and let 
the condition for admission be a certifi- 
cate of graduation from a full four years' 
secondary school course, and upon the com- 
pletion of the work offered let a uniform 
county certificate be granted without ex- 
amination. One such school in a county 
would within a very few years double the 
efficiency of our common school teachers. 
We now look largely to the high schools 
for our supply of teachers for the common 
schools. But the high school is not a 
teachers' training school and should not 
be so regarded. The high school should 
give a general culture rather than specific 
training for a profession. In only the 
large schools will it be found pacticable 
to sub-divide the senior class into groups 
of students — some fitting for college, some 
for business, and some for teaching, and 
give each group a course of study different 
from the others. Far better would it be 

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if the students, who are to engage in teach- 
ing, should complete the high school course 
in the regular way and then devote a year 
of study definitely to the subjects and 
problems to be met in country schools and 
receive this year's instruction from teach- 
ers in thorough sympathy with country life 
and keen to its advantages and possibili- 
ties. We would by this means secure 
teachers, who would have all the training 
the high school now offers and in addi- 
tion a much more thorough knowledge of 
the common branches, including such sub- 
jects as agriculture and domestic science. 
It would give us teachers more mature and 
more thorough since the plan requires one 
additional year in school as students before 
the responsible duties of the teachers of- 
fice are undertaken. The granting of cer- 
tificates to the graduates without examina- 
tion would encourage large numbers to 
complete the course and enter the profes- 
sion through this door rather than through 
the ordeal of an examination at an earlier 
time. 

We have for a score of years been urg- 
ing additional facilities for teacher train- 
ing. Our state teachers' college and our 
other standard colleges have responded 
well to the demand, but the output of 
these institutions goes in the main to sup- 
ply the high schools and the more desir- 
able grade positions. The great majority 
of teachers receive no benefit from these 
splendid institutions only as it may come 
indirectly through better teaching in the 
high schools due to the normal school and 
college influence. If the great mass of 
prospective teachers are to be properly 
trained for the work they are shortly to 
assume, additional facilities for their 
training must in some way be supplied. 
Here is our greatest educational need. 

I have thus far attempted to point the 
way to more efficient schools through a 

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broad-minded liberal policy of support, 
through a rational basis of district organ- 
ization and through a more thorough 
teacher preparation. I want in the mo- 
ment remaining to bear testimony to the 
distinct progress Iowa has made in these 
very lines within the past few years. While 
comparatively few rural communities have 
moved definitely for schools adequate to 
the needs of country children and youth, 
there has been a steady growth of senti- 
ment for stronger and better schools in 
the country, and this sentiment, widening 
and deepening, will one day bring to the 
country child school advantages equal in 
every respect to those enjoyed in the most 
progressive urban community. Not only 
has there been an awakened and growing 
sentiment for better schools and for more 
practical studies in the country, but the 
demand for industrial training and for 
the closer relation of school life to the 
home life and environment of the child 
has, within the past ten years, modified 
the courses and vitally influenced the 
methods in many of our towns and cities. 

The advancement in educational affairs 
is so quiet and so little observed that the 
extent of a decade of progress almost 
amazes when the facts are set in array. 
Ten years ago we had seventeen and a 
half million dollars invested in school 
buildings and grounds; today we have 
over twenty-seven million dollars thus in- 
vested. Ten years ago we had 334,300 
volumes in public school libraries; today 
we have over a million volumes. Ten 
years ago we had 99 standards for county 
teachers' certificates and no certificate had 
any value outside the county of its issue. 
Today we have one standard, the certificate 
is of longer life and it is valid in every 
county of the state. Ten years ago pro- 
fessional training of teachers in the col- 
leges of Iowa was almost unknown. Today 

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strong departments of education are main- 
tained in all our standard colleges. Ten 
years ago we had 111 fully accredited high 
schools, today we have 19 8. And finally, 
and best of all, the salaries paid the public 
school teachers of Iowa for the past year 
aggregated $8,335,917, or $2,728,985 
more than for the year 1900. All this in- 
crease is the more remarkable when it is 
remembered that there are, as shown by 
the returns of the school secretaries, fewer 
children enrolled in the schools of the 
state today than ten years ago. 

I count it a great privilege to have been 
actively engaged with you in the educa- 
tional work of the state during this period 
of marvelous educational awakening and 
substantial progress. My one hope is that 
no step gained shall be lost and that with 
united purpose we may all go forward 
under new leadership to accomplish the 
things that shall make for the yet larger 
growth and greater efficiency of our 
schools. 



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